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Onboarding SOPs for employees: Best practices
An onboarding SOP, or onboarding standard operating procedure, is a written, step-by-step guide for how your company welcomes and trains a new hire, from paperwork and equipment before day one to role training and the first 90 days. Most teams need three: one for HR, one for the hiring manager and one for the new employee. With SOP software like Whale, you can turn each one into an onboarding and training flow every new hire follows the same way.
Onboarding new employees is one of the most important aspects of a company’s and hiring manager’s job, but creating an onboarding program can be difficult without the right guidance.
What should you include in your program? And what are the best practices for onboarding new employees?
With John Elder from The Business Blocks, let’s discuss the three SOPs you need for your employee onboarding program.
We’ll also provide tips for implementing each SOP.
Keep reading to learn more!
Key takeaways
- An onboarding SOP covers how you welcome and train new hires: the employee profile, workstation, company policies and job-specific training.
- Six reasons to use onboarding SOPs: a consistent experience, efficiency, faster acclimation, better communication, legal protection and fewer errors.
- HR's SOP runs from recruitment to offboarding: background checks, documents, orientation agendas and the employee handbook.
- The manager's SOP covers pre-onboarding to the first 3 months, using the 6C's: compliance, clarification, confidence, connection, culture and checkback.
- The employee's SOP pairs a checklist with a 90-day plan, for example a sales rep's targets for calls and closed deals.
- In Whale, Coral, Whale's AI assistant, drafts each onboarding SOP in seconds, and training flows assign it to every new hire by role.
What is a SOP for onboarding?
A SOP, or standard operating procedure, for onboarding refers to a system for welcoming new employees and providing them with the necessary training and resources to succeed in their roles.
This can include creating an employee profile, setting up a workstation, reviewing company policies, and providing job-specific training.
By establishing an SOP for onboarding, companies can ensure that all new hires experience a consistent and efficient process.
Structure speeds new hires up. In APQC's 2025 onboarding survey, 52% of employees who had an ideal onboarding experience reached full productivity in less than one month, compared to 41% of others (APQC, 2025). Creating an SOP for onboarding can have numerous benefits for the individual employee and the organization.
You can learn more about the formula for process, SOPs, and work instructions in this article the difference between policy and SOP.
Why are onboarding SOPs important?
Only 36% of HR leaders say the handoff between recruiting, HR and hiring managers is genuinely seamless (2025 HR Leader Survey: Winning the First 90 Days). A written onboarding SOP for each role closes that gap. This is why you need an SOP for onboarding new hires and why you should avoid the common gaps for onboarding.
Why do you need SOPs for onboarding?
Implementing SOPs for startups is essential for ensuring efficient onboarding, reducing errors, and fostering consistent growth. These procedures help streamline processes, improve team collaboration, and protect the company from potential legal issues.
1. To ensure a consistent, quality experience for your new employees
When you have SOPs in place for onboarding, it helps to ensure that every new employee has the same high-quality experience. This can make a big difference in terms of employee satisfaction and engagement.
2. To make the process more efficient and organized for your team
SOPs can help to streamline and optimize the onboarding process, making it more efficient and organized for your team. This can free up time and resources that can be better used elsewhere.
3. To help new employees become acclimated more quickly and easily
SOPs can help new employees become acclimated to their new role and company more quickly and easily. This can help reduce turnover and increase retention rates.
4. To improve communication and collaboration within your team
Having SOPs in place can improve communication and collaboration within your team, as everyone will be on the same page regarding the onboarding process.
5. To protect your company from potential legal issues
If you do not have SOPs in place for onboarding (or any other HR process), your company could be at risk for potential legal issues. Having SOPs can help to protect your company from any potential liability by ensuring all the legal status of the employment is set up and correct for the state.
6. To reduce the risk of errors
By having SOPs in place, you can help to reduce the risk of errors being made during the onboarding process and thus reduce the re-work of documents.
The 3 SOPs you need for your employee onboarding program
HR professionals are often in the spotlight when it comes to onboarding and for good reason, they have a great impact on the business if they have a successful onboarding program. They’re responsible for ensuring new employees know exactly how they can do their job and what’s expected of them.
They also help managers figure out who should report to which department or region within an organization.
Let’s take a look at their role in detail:
1. HR role: from recruitment to offboard the employee
The role of Human Resources in the onboarding process goes beyond simply scheduling orientation and filling out the necessary paperwork. HR is responsible for welcoming new managers but also for guiding managers through the entire process, ensuring that necessary steps are completed, and providing support and training along the way.
This includes conducting background checks, verifying documents, setting up orientation agendas, and providing guidance on onboarding materials such as employee handbooks and company policies. In addition, HR plays a crucial role in the pre-onboarding phase by vetting job candidates and assessing their fit for the company culture.
By effectively managing the onboarding process from start to finish, HR helps lay the foundation for successful new hires and a positive work environment. They are the very first responsible for welcoming new hires.
The Welcome to the Company section of the employee handbook is an important introduction to the organization for new employees.
In Whale, HR can turn this SOP into an onboarding checklist that preps every start date. TurnUp, where 12 of the 20 team members joined in one year, preps the start date for its new hires this way, with admin and accounts done before day one. "So when they start, everything has already been done for them," says Karim Chedly, Operations Manager. Read the TurnUp story.
Get this onboarding SOP template
2. Manager role: pre-onboarding to their first 3 months
As a manager, it is important to take an active role in the onboarding process for new employees. This includes completing the 6C’s, like Compliance, Clarification, Confidence, Connection, Culture, and Checkback.
In simple terms:
- It is an outline of company policies and expectations.
- It covers their job responsibilities.
- Setting up their workspace and equipment.
- Coordinating introductions to colleagues.
- Collecting necessary paperwork and documents.
- Creating a personalized development plan.
It is also crucial to check in with the new employee during their first few months to ensure they acclimate well to their role and address any challenges or concerns that may arise. Providing this support sets them up for success in their new position and helps foster a positive company culture.
By the way, the manager’s role in onboarding goes beyond just introducing new hires. It involves providing mentorship and guidance as they settle into their role within the organization.
Whale's read assignments send each new hire the right SOP with a due date, and show the manager who has read it.
Get this onboarding SOP template
3. Employee role: from checklist to 90-day plan
As part of the onboarding process, managers can provide new hires with an employee checklist and a 90-day plan. The checklist lets the employee know their duties and resources needed to get up to speed in their role.
The 90-day plan, meanwhile, serves as a roadmap for the initial stages of their employment, setting specific and achievable goals for each month.
By providing these tools, managers can ensure that new hires integrate into the organization seamlessly.
For example:
A 90-day plan for a sales representative might include goals such as:
- Learning about the company’s products and
- Making a set number of sales calls by the end of the first month.
- Closing a certain number of deals by the end of the second and third months might be a good plan.
By setting forth this clear path, employees and managers can work towards long-term success at the company. A PowerPoint template can be an effective tool to present these structured plans visually and ensure clarity.
Coral, Whale's AI assistant, writes a quiz from each SOP, so the manager can check the new hire understood it before the 30-day check-in.
Get this onboarding SOP template
Onboarding SOPs in an AI-first world
AI now does part of the work an onboarding SOP describes, from preparing a new hire's laptop and accounts to chasing policy sign-offs, so the way you write, share and update each onboarding SOP matters more than ever:
- AI writes the first draft. AI tools can turn a one-line prompt such as "first-day checklist for a remote support hire" or "30-60-90 day plan for a warehouse team lead" into a first draft in seconds. They can also turn a screen recording of your HR system or IT admin console into a step-by-step guide for setting up a new starter. HR or the hiring manager still checks every draft before a new hire uses it.
- AI answers new hires' questions. A new hire in their first week can ask an AI assistant how to book a check-in with their onboarding buddy, where to send their tax forms or which policies they still need to sign, instead of messaging their manager. Make sure it shows the source and says when a topic isn't covered, instead of guessing.
- AI agents follow your SOPs. As HR and IT teams hand tasks such as creating accounts before day one, sending policy sign-off reminders and booking 30-, 60- and 90-day check-ins to AI agents, your onboarding SOP becomes their rulebook. Agents follow steps literally, so "set up the new hire's accounts" needs a list of systems and a deadline, such as "create email, chat and payroll accounts 3 working days before the start date."
- MCP connects your AI to your SOPs. The Model Context Protocol (MCP) lets your company's AI agents and AI tools read your approved SOPs, so a change to your equipment request or remote work policy reaches them as soon as it's approved.
With Whale, you can keep every onboarding SOP, from the first-day checklist to the 90-day plan, in one place that new hires and AI agents both work from. Coral, Whale's AI assistant, drafts a new onboarding SOP from a prompt or a screen recording, and answers new hires' questions from your approved SOPs, with the source, in Whale, on the Whale mobile app, through CoPilot or in Slack. Whale's Knowledge Health agents flag onboarding SOPs that are out of date or unread. Whale MCP connects your AI agents to the same SOPs, so the agent that sets up accounts follows the same steps as your IT team. You can also train AI agents on the onboarding SOPs your new hires follow.
Bottom line
SOPs are important for any employee onboarding program. They ensure that new employees understand the company culture and what is expected of them. By having SOPs in place, you can be sure that your employees are productive from day one.
Do you have SOPs in place for your employee onboarding program?
If not, now is the time to create them using the right software. In fact, we’d even suggest checking out some of our competitors to see how Whale compares.
Onboarding new hires are crucial in two ways. Not only does it help new employees feel valued welcome and more prepared but it positively affects the company as a whole for example through increased efficiency, enhanced retention and increased chances of achieving company goals.
John ElderFounder and CEO of The Business BlocksKey terms & further reading on SOPs for hiring process
Key definitions
Additional resources
Onboarding checklist for manager
30-60-90 day onboarding plan
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Lisa Steingold is the Head of Content for Whale. With a history in tech, she's authored 4 books and is obsessed with helping teams unlock the next level of growth and productivity. (And riding her bike)
